Ealdgyth (Aldgitha)

Wife of Eadmund Ironside, king of England.

In 1015, the ealdorman Eadric Streona invited
to his quarters two thegns of the Seven Boroughs, Sigeferth and
Morkere, sons of Earngrim, and caused them to be murdered there.
King Æthelred took possession of their property, and had
Aldgitha, Sigeferth's widow, taken to the town of Malmesbury.
while she was held there, Eadmund the aetheling came and married
her against his father's will ["Hoc anno, cum apud
Oxenafordam magnam haberetur placitum, perfidus dux Edricus
Streona digniores et potentiores ministros ex Seovenburhgensibus,
Sigeferthum et Morkerum, filios Earngrimi, in cameram suam dolose
suscepit, et occulte eos ibi necari jussit; quorum facultates rex
Ægelredus accepit, et derelictam Sigeferthi, Aldgitham, ad
Maidulfi Urbem deduci præcepit: quæ cum ibi custodiretur, venit
illuc Eadmundus clito, et, contra voluntatem sui patris, illam
sibi uxorem accepit, ..." John Worc. s.a. 1015 (1:
170); ASC(E) s.a. 1015; Wm. Malmes., c. 179 (1: 213); only John
of Worcester gives the name of Sigeferth's widow]. On the
possibility that the name Ealdgyth is an error, see the
Commentary section.

Date of birth: Unknown.
Place of birth: Unknown.

Date of death: After 1016.Place of
death: Unknown.Ealdgyth had children born in 1016
and/or 1017, and was therefore still living in 1016.

Father: Unknown.

Mother: Unknown.

In his genealogical appendix, John of Worcester
refers to her as a certain woman of noble descent ["...
Eadmundus successit, qui duos filios, Eadmundum et Eadwardum, ex
quadam nobilis prosapiæ foemina habuit; ..." John
Worc., 1: 275]. For some unconvincing statements
about the parentage of Ealdgyth, see the Commentary section.

Commentary

Is the name Ealdgyth an error?While several sources state that
Eadmund married the widow of Sigeferth, only John of Worcester
gives her name (see above). What causes concern is that
Sigeferth's brother also appears to have married a woman with the
uncommon name Ealdgyth [Will of Wulfric, in Sawyer (1979), xix,
55 (#29)]. Thus, the possibility has been suggested that when
John of Worcester gave the name of Sigeferth's wife, he erred by
instead giving the name of the wife of Sigeferth's brother Morcar
[Freeman (1870-9), 374, n. 2; Sawyer (1979), xxiii].

Supposed brother: NN, a king in Wales.Geoffrey Gaimar states that Eadmund married
a sister of one of the Welsh kings ["Mes cist Eadmund
avna gent; / Si guereiad mult vassalment. / Od lui se tindrent
les Waleis. / Si prist la sour a vn des reis;" ("But
this Eadmund gathered men, / And fought manfully. / With him the
Welsh held. / He took [to wife] the sister of one of their kings.")
Gaimar, 4219-22]. Although Geoffrey had access to sources no
longer in existence, he is not generally considered a reliable
source. Certainly, the name Ealdgyth is not Welsh.

Supposed father (no
evidence offered, improbable): Olaf Skotkonung, d. 1021×2, king of
Sweden.Supposed mother (no
evidence offered, improbable): Edla, of Vendland.[Ronay (1984), 45; Ronay (1989), 53 &
n. 2 (p. 193)] No justification is given for these relationships,
and there does not appear to be any good reason to accept Ronay's
statement. The name Ealdgyth, is English, not Swedish.

Falsely attributed
mother: Ælfthryth.Falsely attributed
grandmother: Wulfrun.Falsely attributed
daughter by Sigeferth:
Ælfgifu, m. Ælfgar, d. 1062×5, earl
of East Anglia and Mercia.[Swanton (2000), 293 (genealogical table)]
Swanton's table is apparently based on a misinterpretation of a
genealogical table given by Sawyer in his discussion of the
family of Wulfric Spot [Sawyer (1979), xxxviii-xliii, with
genealogical table on p. xlii]. There, in a partly conjectural
genealogy, it is suggested that Wulfrun's daughter Ælfthryth was
the mother of Ealdgyth, wife of Morcar (brother of Sigeferth),
and that the latter two were the parents of Ælfgifu, wife of
Ælfgar. Here, Swanton is confusing Morcar's wife with
Sigeferth's wife.

Falsely attributed
father: Morcar,
d. 1015, brother of Sigeferth.Falsely attributed
mother: Ealdgyth, supposed daughter of Wulfric Spot.
["Siferth, according to Florence, was his brother - he
calls them sons of Earngrim - but, strange as it may appear to
the ideas of modern times, this connection (if it existed) does
not necessarily preclude the marriage of Siferth with his
brother's daughter." Robertson (1872), 187 n. 1;
relationship also shown on table, p. 189] This supposed marriage
of uncle to niece is nowhere documented, and is not believable.

Bibliography

ASC = Charles Plummer, Two of the Saxon
Chronicles parallel, based on the earlier edition by John
Earle, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1892-9). ASC(A) indicates the
"A" manuscript of the chronicle, and similarly for the
other manuscripts.